WNBA Expansion: 5 New Teams by 2030

We dive into the exciting WNBA expansion plans, examining the timeline for five new teams joining the league between now and 2030, and brainstorm potential team names for these franchises.

• Toronto Tempos and Portland's team will debut in 2026
• Cleveland's franchise arrives in 2028, with Detroit following in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030
• Potential team names include Portland Blazers, Cleveland Queens, Detroit Shock, and Philadelphia Bells
• Sophie Cunningham questioned these city selections, preferring alternatives like Miami, Nashville, and Boston
• Alternative city options could include Miami Beaches, Houston Rockettes, or Boston Clovers
• Expansion raises questions about schedule changes and competitive balance

Please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, and tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey, I'm the host of Get A Bucket. Hope you all are having a good one, take care.

Chapters

• 0:00 WNBA Expansion Timeline Revealed
• 1:42 Naming Portland and Cleveland Teams
• 3:10 Detroit and Philly Team Names
• 4:49 Alternative Cities Sophie Cunningham Suggested
• 6:41 Future Expansion Possibilities
• 10:24 Episode Closing and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

What's up everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show Get a Bucket. I'm your host, trey, and, as usual, I hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. Today we're going to talk about the WNBA expansion teams, but before we do that, please make sure to hit that like and subscribe button, comment and tell anyone who's anyone, about the show, trying to get the ratings up a little bit. You know, just a little bit, but little bit.

Speaker 1: 0:22

Like I said, ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to talk about the expansion teams, and we got to talk about that timeline, right. Because, well, well, you know what, let's bring them up, shall we? Let's go ahead and bring them up, because we got, we got five more teams, got five more teams to talk about. Uh, we got the valkyries, which we've already seen, right, and they're doing their thing out there. Shout out to the valkyries, right. But we also have here the Toronto Tempos, which come in 2026, as well as the Portland. Well, we'll figure it out later on, but I got a couple ideas, but they're coming in 2026 as well. Then we also have the Cleveland yeah, we're gonna figure out what to call them too, but they're coming in 2028. And then, finally, we got Detroit. Yeah, whatever they call them in 2029. And then Philly, we figure it out in 2030. So we have a nice little timeline for WNBA teams. So I love the fact that we're going to have 18 WNBA teams by 2030. And that's going to come sooner rather than later too. Like dang, that time really is going to be. Let's not talk about how fast time is going to fly, because I got a couple of names I want to throw out there for some of the new teams, right, and I just want to hear what people think the fans think. So for the Portland, we'll figure it out. I'm thinking, maybe Blazers huh, huh, like you know what I'm saying Like Portland Blazers, portland Trail Blazers, portland Blazers I think that might be able to work. How about the Pioneers? I don't know. Okay, possibly you know what I'm saying. The Playmakers let's figure it out.

Speaker 1: 1:59

I like the Blazers personally. I like the Blazers personally. How about, then? Let's go with Cleveland Now? Blazers, personally, I like the blazers personally. How about, then let's go with? Let's go with cleveland now? You know they were newly approved. Um, they, they were. They were formerly the rockers, right, I don't know if y'all rocking with that, though. Um, the queens, how about the queens. Could y'all roll with the queens? I'm wondering, how about the defenders? Like I run, I ran these names by a fan of the of of of cleveland, in general cleveland sports, and she was cool with the queen.

Speaker 1: 2:30

The defenders, I don't, I don't. Maybe I got that backwards, I gotta recheck. I gotta recheck. She was cool with one of them. She was cool with one of them, though. The rockers, though she's not the, she's not the fan of, and, keep in mind, that's the incumbent name too. That's crazy, that crazy. That's what it is, though, but the Cleveland, whatever they're going to be, this is a good draft class, because 2028, ladies and gentlemen, is when we're talking about players like a Sarah Strong, toby Fournier you know what I'm saying. Sarah Strong is out of UConn, toby Fournier is out of Duke. You know how we do, you know what I'm saying. So, again, solid draft class.

Speaker 1: 3:06

Uh, for the cleveland, whatever they call them to be looking for, to draft it, although they might get fifth, which sucks tough. Uh, how about the detroit? And you know, it's a new team, right, the shocks, the detroit shocks. That's the incumbent name. Cool, I hear it. Right, like I. You know tulsa, now wings they. That was the past, but we can go back to having the detroit shock now, even though they technically the Dallas Wings, let's figure it out. But if y'all don't want to go that route, cool. How about the Detroit Transformers? No, all right. The Detroit Dynamos? No, no, all right. Well, I would love to see what this Detroit team come out to be, especially when the Pistons are coming. Ooh, if they can get something shaking by the time the Pistons are rocking too, that would be lovely. But let's go ahead and go on down to 2030.

Speaker 1: 3:52

The Philadelphia, whatever we want to call them. Y'all have heard this name before, so we're going to spin the block batting one more time. The Pioneers Hmm, nothing, something, I see nothing, something. I see somebody, someone. I got a couple likes. All right, that's cool. Um, the philadelphia bells some of y'all like that one. Some of them like that one, I think so. I think I got a couple of, I think I got a couple smiles out there. Uh, the philadelphia loves okay, all right. All right, that that might be too. Yeah, I can see that going a little left. All right that the Philadelphia Freedom Fighters Hold off on it. Let's hold off on it. I bells could be the winner, though, but freedom fighters, you know I'm saying I might not be mad at that. Now here's the thing. Okay, now we've already talked about all of these teams, wnba cities, right, the Indiana Fevers.

Speaker 1: 4:49

Sophie Cunningham made a wonderful statement and she said, you know, she questions basically the excitement of the fans of these, of these cities, of these cities, like, like sophie cunningham is questioning, questioning toronto, portland, cleveland, detroit and philly, and she believed that some better alternatives could have been out there, like like a mi, a Kansas City, a Nashville, right, and I do hear that Because, also, I told you guys, I brought a Cleveland sports fan on the show before and I ran across some names, right and well, on another episode of mine I did state, well, I would not be mad if I saw Miami up here, right, kansas City, tennessee, I, she said Nashville, I said Tennessee, cool, right, like Boston, I could have seen Houston, like we could have seen those, I would have been able to those. I do get the appeal to bringing those teams, those cities, new teams. I thought Boston actually was about to do that. That's what's crazy, and when you think about it I mean, all right, let's think about this, right, because who wouldn't want to play in Miami. I do get her statement on that. Let's get some alternative names for some of these cities. Right, like Miami, we got the beaches. The Miami beaches. Oh my gosh, yo, that is crazy. I'm telling y'all right now that would be hilarious. But no, seriously, all right. So the Miami Fuegasgas, you know, I'm saying like the miami flames, the miami torches, like that could be cool, although if y'all trash y'all, you got torched. That's good that that one could backfire, but I do see the appeal. Also, the name is kind of cool too. So again, I do hear you on miami. How about kansas city? I'm still working on this one, but, like the chieftains, you can call them the Tans for short. See, I'm not really feeling that one. So until we can get a better name, I don't know, patty Mahomes and them just might not have a WNBA squad to root for right now. How about Nashville, tennessee? We can give them the Grizzlies. You know what I mean. I think that could work out Easy peasy. Lemon squeezy.

Speaker 1: 7:22

Something about the Boston Clovers. I feel like that could work too. Again, like Boston Celtics, boston Clovers. I genuinely thought the Boston WNBA team was coming. No-transcript between now and 2030. That does hurt. That does hurt. It also means too, that you know, boston as a city ain't as prominent as LA, that's all I'm saying. Lakers is greater than Celtics and Sparks is greater than well, you know the Clovers, I guess, right, how about Houston? We could go Rockies, we could go Rockettes. See, we got the Houston Rockets and we got the Houston Rockettes. See, it's a little bit different, but although I could understand, there'd be a little bit of issue with that. Either way, ladies and gentlemen, I do understand wanting to pair WNBA teams with those cities.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Again, houston, nashville, kansas city. I don't know about kansas city as much, but I get why. Nowadays too, again, boston would be smooth, houston especially not. Like, imagine if houston had a wmba team and they were decent. That would be an interesting dynamic, especially for the future. If Houston is continuously trending upwards the way, I think it could be Miami getting a WNBA squad. Oh, you know they lit. Oh, you know they lit. And then imagine if Asia Wilson just so happened to want to hit free agency during that time period. Like, imagine she went from las vegas to miami, huh, huh, that would have been interesting.

Speaker 1: 9:12

Like I'm just saying, I'm I'm not, you know, but no, seriously, I, I do love the fact that we have the toronto tempos coming up, the portland whatever, the cleveland, whatever, the det Detroit, whatever and the Philadelphia, whatever. But, ladies and gentlemen, I do wonder if we can start sneaking in some other teams too, Like a Miami, like a Kansas City, like a Nashville, like a Boston, like a Houston. That would be cool, that would be cool. So again, you know, I get it, I do get it. I just would like if we could get a couple more teams, because again, I'm being selfish right now. You know what I'm saying, I'm being selfish. Hell, I'd like for there to be more teams in the USA for the WNBA. That means more basketball for myself and then also we get more of these teams. Hmm, what's that gonna do to the schedule? Because I mean, we can't keep it at 40 plus games now, like it's gotta, it's gotta expand. But then when does the season start? Oh man, see, now we about to start getting questions. All right, you know what? I'm gonna get off my soapbox real quick.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Ladies and gentlemen, as y'all can tell, that does conclude the end of the episode. I should have paid attention earlier. My bad, but definitely. Let me know what y'all think about the expansion teams. Are you guys happy about the five teams that they've selected, five cities that the WNBA has selected, or should they have selected other alternatives that I listed off? I mean, I get both sides, I genuinely do. But more importantly, we get more teams, more basketball, more potential stars to watch. So I love it. But I hope you all enjoy it and definitely continue to watch the WNBA, but also continue to watch my show. I greatly appreciate it. But, ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the end of the episode. So definitely please make sure to like subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey. I'm the host of Get A Bucket. Hope you all are having a good one, take care.